Introduction to Network Mapper
Network Mapper, also called Nmap, can be defined as a type of tool used for scanning through and recognizing the at-risk ports & nodes in a definite network setup. It comes with Kali Linux for validating the network security of the system. This is an efficient tool with high performance for network examination that is painless to access and allows multiple types of scanning like TCP, UDP, stealth, etc.
What is Network Mapper?
Nmap may be defined as the network vulnerability scanner which identifies all the services running on several ports. It states whether the ports are open, closed or filtered based on the responses it receives from different kinds of scans. TCP scan, UDP scan, Stealth scan are some of the types of scans that one can perform using the nmap. It first estimates the network’s speed, and based on the network speed; it performs the scan to the system. There are some of the applications like expose, which runs the nmap behind.
Nmap can also be considered as the inbuilt tool in Kali Linux that offers an edge to conduct security checks. It utilizes the ICMP scan to identify the network’s speed, and based on the speed, it processes the scan request submitted by the user. One can scan all the available ports using nmap, but nmap scans only the default ports in the usual case. Nmap actually analyses the response from the server to find out the services and the ports open. It declares the scan result in front of the security analyst so that they can verify the things.
Working with Network Mapper
In this section, we will be considering an example where we will perform an actual scan on an active IP to understand all the active services on that system. The IP belongs to a live server running various services to help the users of that server leverage the advantage of the server. Some services are supposed to be run on the particular port, so when the nmap scan for the defaults ports, it actually checks the common services, which are expected to be more juicy than others.
In the above picture, it is visible to us that several services are up in the server. Some of the ports are open while some are closed, but no filtered ports are there based on the normal scan. It shows that ports like 21, 22, 53, 118, etc. are open, which are running ftp, ssh, domain, pop3, respectively. The scan performed in the above image is the default scan as we have not selected if any specific type of scan like TCP, UDP, Stealth, or so on scans.
The command that has been executed in the terminal of Kali Linux has the nmap keyword, which is used to initiate the nmap scanning. There are additional attributes like -sS, -sT, -sU, which can be used together with the nmap keyword to make it scan the target system in the desired manner. Here, we have just used the command nmap 162.215.248.160, and as the outcome, nmap presented all the port information in front of us, which is ample to state how easy it is to work with nmap. At the last of the scam, it also shows the total time it required to complete the scan. Based on the outcome, the system analyst can determine if the system has any vulnerability.
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Advantages of Network Mapper
The following are the advantages of network mapper:
1. Easy to use
Nmap is the inbuilt tool in Kali Linux, which is very easy to use. One just needs to feed the IP address of the target that is required to be scanned, and the entire services will be scanned.
2. Base for several applications
Several other applications use nmap in behind in order to determine all the services. For instance, Nexpose is an application that is used nmap internally to find out the vulnerabilities of any network.
3. Various scan types
Based on the system admin requirement or any user, nmap can perform different types of the scan to get the desired result. For example, there is an option of performing the stealth scan, which is there to make sure that the scanning on target should not make much noise in the network to invoke the log generation.
4. Network vulnerability scanning
Using nmap is all about finding the services running in the ports and the status of ports, but eventually, the information produces as the outcome of scanning can be used to determine the vulnerabilities in the system.
Career Growth
Anyone who wants to make their career in the security domain is supposed to have the working idea of all the inbuilt tools available in Kali Linux, which are specially made available for security testing. If it comes to having a working idea of the inbuilt tools, nmap comes in the first position. It is very useful while gathering details about the target so that based on that, they can determine what kind of attack will be suitable for the target.
Conclusion
Nmap is the inbuilt network scanning tool available in Kali Linux, which security professionals leverage to safeguard the network. It is very easy to use, and anyone concerned with network vulnerability assessment can learn this to get some sharp edge in their career. There are other applications as well that run nmap in order to perform network scanning. There are different levels on which it can be used. A new user can use it as a beginner usually explores the new thing, and the professionals can use it to the advanced level based on their expertise.
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